Cooper Kupp shared a brilliant breakdown of his 29-yard TD vs. Jaguars

[theramswire.usatoday.com] Cooper Kupp shared a brilliant breakdown of his 29-yard TD vs. Jaguars

Cameron DaSilva
December 6, 2021 11:37 am PT

Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford have praised Cooper Kupp’s football intelligence countless times this season – and for McVay, numerous times over the last four-plus years since Kupp was drafted in 2017. He’s one of the smartest players in football, completely understanding route concepts, defensive coverages and how to get open against both man and zone.

Against the Jaguars on Sunday, he found the end zone for the 11th time this season and after the win, he broke down exactly what he saw from the defense that allowed him to get open for Stafford and score the 29-yard touchdown. It was a brilliant answer from the Rams receiver, showing that he knew he just had to beat the safety in the middle of the field and he’d have a clear path to the end zone.



If you didn’t follow that, here’s a transcription of his answer – which probably sounded like a foreign language to casual observers.

“Yeah, they just had a little three-deep fire zone. Brought the nickel off the edge, safety dropped down. They didn’t look like they were doing a replacement fire zone, so I knew with the back away, we were going to get three pushing through. I had an opportunity to kind of run in there if I could beat my guy, just had to beat the safety to the end zone.”

Here’s a look at the touchdown, just in case you missed it on Sunday afternoon.


Next Gen Stats used its player tracking to provide a virtual angle of the touchdown, showing what Kupp saw. The nickel defender (5) came on the blitz, which left the strong safety (42) to come down in the hook zone.

The outside corners (32 and 21) and the middle safety (2) were covering the deep thirds, and with the safety rotating to cover Ben Skowronek (18) on the deep fade, it left no defender in the middle of the field to cut off Kupp’s path to the end zone.

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If you didn’t already realize how smart Kupp is on the field, that breakdown should give you a good idea of what makes him the best receiver in football right now. It’s not all about speed and explosiveness, and Kupp is proving that with a breakout season in 2021.